Rose Herceg’s Cannes Diary #2

Rose Herceg, president of WPP represented Australia on the Cannes Creative Strategy Lions jury. Herceg, along with most of the other Australian and NZ jurors, writes exclusively for CB.

Creative Strategy Jury: Day 2 Judging

There are times when I feel very proud of this business and this industry.

Today was one of those times.

We debated. And then we debated some more. The discussion was nuanced. Intelligent. Kind.

In the end, we selected 25 winners worthy of attention, each presenting the very best of our industry.

Each doing one or more – or sometimes all – of the following:

1. 1. Solving a business problem with clear, articulated results.
2. 2. Changing the law.
3. 3. Creating a new business model.
4. 4. Creating an entirely new revenue stream.
5. 5. Making us laugh, and then making money.
6. 6. Making us feel profoundly moved, and then selling a product.
7. 7. Focusing narrowly on a single audience and winning them over.
8. 8. Demonstrating that businesses, as well as consumers, can both make money at the same time if the model is beautifully created.
9. 9. Showing purpose where it makes absolute sense and drives a return.
10. 10. Making any CFO sit and take notice of advertising.

For me, today’s session was a reminder that clear and simple – yet ambitious – ideas are often the most elegant of solutions. For all the talk of tech, and especially AI, in our jury, humanity won the day.

Finally, there is enormous value in being entertained by work that works. Work that makes us laugh out loud at the same time.

To anyone considering whether to be on a Cannes jury, say yes. You will never regret it if you get a jury like mine.